Perusing the headlines this morning, I came upon this Huffington Post piece, in which journalist Stephanie Marcus photographically documents the mannequins in the storefront of the Club Monaco on the Upper East Side. One extremely disturbing shot, illustrating the mannequins’ “Help, I haven’t eaten since 2007″ spines:

As a 4’11” size 4-6 who wears a 5 1/2 shoe and is not an anomaly – here are few things I’d like to point out that particularly annoy the Hell out of me:

–EXPRESS. Try as you might to be the #1 purveyor of professional dress pants for the American businesswoman, you’re doing a disservice for the average one. The average American woman is 5 ft. 4 inches tall. As much as I adore the fit of your “Editor”-style dress pants, I’ve been distraught for years that the ‘petite’ cut only comes in solid black. You make them in light grey with thin blue pinstripes and a pretty “earth” brown, but those only come in the regular length. (Which creates about 2 feet of pooled fabric at my feet.) Apparently, shorter women are color blind…or have more money to shell out on alterations?

–Steve Madden. Why must you make adorable shoes, but then refuse to size them any smaller than a size 6? I know that my size 5.5 foot is a couple of sizes smaller than the average woman’s, which is what? 7? But petite women want to wear cute shoes, too. But you know what, your shoes aren’t exactly comfortable. So maybe I’m better off.

–Everywhere. Please make shorts for women with real thighs. And enough with the skinny jeans. They only look good on about 2% of women. Also, in the fall, I will become annoyed again with the fact that many shoe manufacturers insist on creating gorgeous knee-high boots…but only for women with twig-thin calves.

I'd like to see some shorts made for real women with real thighs.

Here’s what some other regular women had to say:

“As a short person and not a very skinny person, I wish there were more exact sizing like with men’s pants.” -Julie*, 25, 5’2″, size 8

“Old Navy‘s sizing is getting disturbingly big. Even an XS top can be too big on me, which is ridiculous! And yet, I can barely squeeze into a size 8 pair of jeans. Also, regular jeans seem to be cut length-wise for women who are 5’8″!” -Katie, 25, 5’4″, size 6

“It would be nice to have an inbetween Misses and Women’s [Plus] size. For women who are short, with a big stomach and boobs like me.” -Karen*, 56, 5’2″, size 16

*=Names have been changed, per the source’s request.

Fashion Retail America, we know you’re just all about the bottom line. So I really don’t get why you’re more interested in cutting your clothes for and idealizing a 5’11”, 110 lb. woman who does not exist. Wouldn’t it better to create more merchandise for the 5’5″ and below, beautiful pear and apple-shaped women who do?

And to the Club Monaco on 87th and Broadway, get a clue. Your concept of an eye-catching window display is about as brainless as your decapitated wooden models.

1 comment

Great article. I totally agree on the sizing issue as well as the ridiculous skeleton models in the window. I will say this though–I really do love Club Monaco suits and dress pants. They fit me so well and my favorite thing about them is that they aren’t 5 inches below the belly button! They actually come up pretty high–which I love! They hide any “love” that other low rider pants put on display.